indigo_dc

also it's showing as "generic VGA adapter" do I need to change the drivers or something?

First benchmark for m17x r3 2630QM, 580M and 4gb RAM, killer wifi and 320gb HDD P3050 Is this good? Feeling disappointed so far - tried playing Crysis at 1080p ultra settings and it essentially was a slideshow... I was assured this machine spec would have 30fps minimum and it essentially crashed my PC Any advice on what might be wrong?

To be totally honest I've not noticed any difference in gaming. Well - I have noticed a lot of the other people in WoW lag a LOT and wondered if it was because I'm lagging less I see others lagging more? If that makes sense? But I don't think it does make sense. So short version - not seen any performance improvement directly attributable to the network card.

My m17xr3 arrived yesterday. It's awesome. However, it's now prompting me to generate a respawn disk which I'm assuming is their recovery CD thing. However, I've now installed a handful of games too - the respawn will only backup the OS install not the games wont it?

Sorry then dude - mine arrived yesterday, I unpacked it and it's glorious Full review & benchmarks to come but the 3d is surprisingly good and to get 120fps in WoW, Dawn of War 2, StarCraft 2.... it's tasty. Sadly can't get the 3d to work in WoW though

When it comes to benchmarking using 3dmark (all versions) is the "done thing" to use the free download versions, i.e. is that the numbers everyone is posting? Or has everyone bought the full version? Hopefully fingers crossed getting it today, tomorrow at the latest, so I intend to get some numbers and a mini review up. Where's the best place to stick the review BTW?

Well I got an email on Saturday - to my work account, sadly - confirming the delivery date is TODAY. Problem is I'm at work!! Still, the wife is home until 11am and UPS is saying it's "out for delivery" so fingers crossed she can receive it before she leaves! So excited, not going to get any work done today.

Pleased you guys confirmed this as I ordered this very setup yesterday

I've had a look at the stickies but can't see anything, is there a guide anywhere on the basic methods behind overclocking the m17x r3? Not looking for anything outlandish, just seeing if I can nudge things up a little. Check me out, my m17x only went "work in progress" this morning and already I'm planning overclocking

Well I did it, ordered M17x R3 - i7 2630QM - 4Gb - 580M GTX - 120Hz 1080p - 320gb SSD - Killer network card - 1yr LoJack With a further 8gb RAM and a Crucial M4 128GB SSD on order from 3rd party as well. ETA 16th August (at the latest). So I suppose on paper I am technically an M17x owner now edit: As soon as I get it I'll try and get some benchmarks up, with further ones once I get the RAM/SSD fitted. Going to look to see what common benchmarks are posted/asked for on here now!

Brilliant, thank you.

Really? I'd read an article on tomshardware reviewing the Dell SSD (essentially a samsung 470 (aka P810 apparently)) and it said it was pretty solid, with one drawback being higher power consumption. In terms of benchmarks, it seemed middle of the pack which for a vendor drive I figured wasn't too bad (especially when the absolute benchmark times for it were considered). Benchmark Results: Access Time And I/O Performance : Roundup: The Best SSDs For Enthusiasts Having said that, very interested to hear your opinion - and if it means I can keep the costs down right now, the "accountant" is more likely to give her approval Couple of things though, if you didn't get the stock SSD which one would you go for? I'm not massively worried about large capacity ones - truth be told, 128gb would be fine as I store all files/photos/music etc. on a NAS and when I'm finished playing a game I'd uninstall it. So 128gb would be fine but of course 256gb for a reasonable price would be nice too, so if you have suggestions for either capacity that'd be cool. Second, I've never bought a laptop from a big org like Dell, it's only been a local guy. Will Dell supply me with a disk to reinstall Windows 7 on an SSD when I get around to buying one and fitting it, or do they just give those pointless recovery disks? And what's the risk of installing windows onto a fresh SSD, what about dedicated alienware software & laptop specific drivers etc, would I not need those? I'm totally comfortable rebuilding PCs from scratch, that's not really a problem, but I've only ever had one laptop and truth be told, never needed to mess about with reinstalls etc!

I most certainly will! Just chatted to dell and they said that despite their machine costing £2000 with the only major difference being the 580 gpu vs the 460 gpu in the £1600 Asus G73 their is "no possible way to change the price or the spec". All I want is an SSD! I shall keep working on them

Going to go with this - i7 2630 QM 2GB GTX 580M 4gb RAM 320GB HDD 120Hz screen That's approx £2000. Then I'm going to call them up, compare the specs & price with the G73 and see what they can do for me - if they can knock the price down a bit and stick the SSD in there I'll be happy Really appreciate all the help and advice on this, many many thanks.

Sorry, my reply wasn't clear - you're absolutely right and I'm now getting the full res screen for exactly the reasons you mention, but it's a toss up between the cpu or 3d. Or neither, and save some pennies

Hmm for the same price I could upgrade the CPU to the "mid-range" option. Much more tempted by that to be honest. Wish I could try it out

Sold I must admit the more I look at this machine the more I want it. Now trying to find reviews of the 3d option, which I normally think is just a gimmick, does anyone have any experience of it actually working? Is it worthwhile? A colleague of mine says games are one area where 3d actually half decent, but I've only found one review so far online. It claimed it was quite good, but with the 460 card it really started to struggle on newer games. Curse me for even thinking about it, but what's the general opinion on 3d for games?

Photoshop primarily, I do quite a lot of hi-res photo editing for print when not gaming. My last machine had 2gb and when manipulating several hundred MB stitched panoramas would frequently go out of memory. Using a readyboosted USB stick helped slightly but it was painfully slow. So I figured more was better - but I see your point, 4gb at this stage can easily be boosted later if needed and is double what I did have on a faster machine to boot! Very good point

On the subject of the RAM, would there be much discernible difference between 6gb and 8gb configurations? I also have a vague memory that it is better to run the same size ram modules in each slot, as opposed to the 2gb/4gb combo in the 6gb offering - I admit I'm out of touch having not built a pc for 4yrs+ now! Or is that not an issue? Basically I'm now looking at getting the best spec parts which are harder to replace, so I can upgrade the likes of the HDD to an SSD and boost the ram at a later date.

Cheers. Going to see about switching to the 580M and losing the SSD, albeit temporarily, as I can always add an SSD at a later date, see how that affects the price.

>< oops, going back to correct it now lets pretend it never happened.

Thx for the reply - I actually forget to list the spec I was initially aiming at. i7 2630QM 460M GTX 1.5gb 8gb RAM 256Gb P810 SSD 17.3" display - either the 1600x900 or the 1920x1080! So I was not going to go for the top gfx option - would that make a significant difference do you think? Heading over to the full review now, ty

Hi Just wanted to start by saying this thread has been immensely useful in helping me make my mind up on whether to go for an M17x, particularly the advice to call up Dell and haggle! However, I still do have a niggling question... but first some background. I'm upgrading because my old laptop was stolen - Samsung R710 with 1920 x 1200 screen and 9600M GT card. Truth be told, aside from the odd bluray DVD, I could barely run any games at the native resolution and almost always dropped it down lower. I know the M17x is CONSIDERABLY more powerful, but I'm trying to decide if there is a significant difference between going for the 1600 screen option or the 1920 option. Is getting the 1920 res version essentially pointless as I'd need to lower it like I did to get newer games running at full detail, or does the M17x have the horsepower to handle it? To give examples, at the low end of the scale I'd be playing WoW, and at the high end of the scale I really would like to give Crysis a go, at full detail! So if I don't go for an internal bluray drive (I already own an external one, and wouldn't watch blurays on it anyway, I'd use my TV) is it a needless expense to get the better screen, and at worst could it be detrimental to overall performance to do that when compared to the 1600 option? Thanks in advance